Computing devices have a number of uses, among the most popular being use in various games. The continued evolution of computing technology, including increased storage, faster processing times, and highly realistic displays, combined with high bandwidth networks have resulted in computers being able to provide highly realistic gaming experiences for users.
While game developers will often target products towards specific demographic audiences, there are limitations to this approach. For example, games are typically tailored to appeal to a specific age, demographic, or gender. This approach requires the assumption that in general, all users within the target demographic are of similar physical and intellectual ability, in order for the game experience to be relatively consistent from one user to the next.
Not all users are created equal, and there will be physical, intellectual, and even psychological differences among specific users that will result in a different game experience for each user. Where the game player or user is disabled, the gaming experience can be significantly less enjoyable depending on the nature and extent of the disability. With some disabilities, access to or perception of certain game content may be impossible.
There have been some previous attempts by others to assess or diagnose different types of disabilities. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,299,452 to Wasowicz et al., titled “Diagnostic System and Method for Phonological Awareness, Phonological Processing, and Reading Skill Test, filed Jul. 9, 1999, discusses the use of graphics based games to test a person's phonological abilities. Similarly, U.S. Patent Application publication 2004/0014021 to Suleiman title, “Apparatus and Method for Evaluating School Readiness”, filed Jul. 17, 2002, discusses using computer-based games to evaluate whether a child is ready to begin school. Still, further, U.S. Patent Application publication 2006/0127871 to Grayson titled “Method and Apparatus for Teaching”, filed Feb. 10, 2006, discusses tracking a student's progress through interactive computer lessons that allow the student to be assessed for learning disabilities based on those interactions.
Others have directed their efforts towards the development of games specifically tailored for disabled persons. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,474,290 to Demshuk titled “Game Apparatus for the Handicapped”, filed Aug. 24, 1994, discusses a table game apparatus adapted for use by a person having a physical or mental handicap. U.S. Patent Application publication 2004/0212149 to Farmer titled “Social Skill Builder Game”, filed Apr. 24, 2004, discusses a board game adapted to develop and improve behavior skills for children and adults with developmental disabilities. Similarly, U.S. Patent Application publication 2008/0070682 to Woody titled “Systems and Methods for Providing Education Games for Use by Young Children, and Digital Storage Medium for Storing the Educational Games Thereon”, filed Aug. 15, 2007, discusses providing a controller that can be grasped by a young child or a person with a disability. These references also contemplate a priori constructed games or game elements to make a game accessible to a disabled person.
Despite these efforts, even games designed for disabled persons as a demographic group suffer from the same limitations as games designed for non-disabled players. Specifically, known games and gaming systems do not provide a way for the gaming system to interactively assess physical, intellectual or psychological limitations of an individual user, and then use that information to either tailor the gaming experience for the user, or as a means of developing a suggested “playlist” of games that are suitable given that user's specific characteristics and/or limitations.
Thus, the above references fail to appreciate that a game designer, specifically a computer game designer, requires insight into the characteristics and limitations of individual users in order to design a game with the broadest appeal and utility to a group of users who may have widely varying abilities and disabilities. Similarly, there is currently no known system that permits a user to be able to provide information about their particular abilities or disabilities in real-time in order to query a gaming system about which particular games might be most appropriate or most enjoyable based on their personal characteristics.
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